Regaining Faith
by Senator Amidala
Summary: When Emily and Joel's child Taylor's favourite horse dies in birth of her foal, Taylor is heart-broken. She turnes against the poor filly. Moon Dancer is always an huge help to the family, but Taylor was determined not to like her. Find out if Moon Dancer finally wins Taylor's heart and if Taylor finds out Moon Dancer's secret...


Regaining Faith

~ Chapter 1 ~

Taylor Jacobs's parents owned a horse farm. After what her parents, Emily and Joel Jacobs, had lived through with a horse, they could not resist coming back to earth to share their love of horses with others. The family had twelve horses, and four were in foal. Three of them were geldings. They only had one stallion though. His name was Majestic, nicknamed _The Black Stallion_ because he was jet black all over. He was the sire of all of the foals and the foals that were coming this spring at the farm. Of course she loved all of them, but there was only one horse that had its own place in Taylor's heart. Her name was Charity, and she was one of the four pregnant mares. Taylor constantly worried about her though. She was the most delicate horse that her family owned, and Taylor didn't know how well she would deal with her pregnancy. Charity's foal was due in a month. Taylor prayed every night that Charity would survive. She tried to be with her and watch over her whenever she could, But that was where school got in the way. One day in the stable, Jack, one of the stable hands Taylor's family employed, asked her, "Do you want me to watch over Charity while you're at school? I have watched you and you seem so worried about her. I know I have other chores, but I could come check on her every half-hour." "You could do that?" Taylor hesitated. She would have preferred to ask her older brother Nathan, but he was 17. Three years older than Jack. Which meant, he was about to start university, so he couldn't really afford to skip school for a month. "Yes please!" said Taylor. "I'm sure your parents would understand." Jack reassured her. "You're only 11 Taylor. It will not do you any good asking your parents to skip school for a month." Taylor knew that to be true. She thanked Jack for helping her care for Charity while she could not.

The next day, while walking to school, Taylor felt much better knowing that Charity was being watched and cared for her every need. She was also thinking of a million names for Charity's foal. She had her notebook out, and had drawn a diagram. One side was names for a filly, and the other for a colt. Most names she rejected though. They were too short, too long, too cheeky, too serious, or just plain wrong. It's hard finding the perfect name for a horse that you have never seen. "_I guess it depends on what colour its coat is_." Thought Taylor. "I wonder if he or she will look like its mommy or its daddy?" That was the first day since Charity's pregnancy was announced that Taylor was really able to concentrate at school. She knew that Jack was dependable because he had worked for her family for three years, and she knew that if Charity so much as pawed the lipped at her hay net, Jack would be there in an instant. "Earth to Taylor! Taaaaaayyyyyylor! Hello?" Her teacher snapped her out of her daydreams. "Sorry Miss" mumbled Taylor, embarrassed. "I will repeat myself again. Taylor who was Christopher Columbus?" Sure of herself, Taylor answered "He was one of the first people who believed the earth was round, so he went east by sailing west." "Very good Taylor" exclaimed her teacher. "An amazing improvement! I guess we all have our good days and our bad days!" "_If only she knew_." Thought Taylor.

When Taylor got home that day, she found Jack refilling Charity's water trough. "How was she?" asked Taylor. "Amazing!" replied Jack "She did not do anything unusual. Since she is so close to birth, your father says that we should keep her in her stall from now on so that we can watch her more closely. The vet came today, and said that her time is near." In the next week, Charity showed no signs of being about to give birth, but she was being more picky about what she ate. She wanted only the best food available and the freshest carrots and apples.

On Friday, when Taylor got back from school, the farm seemed strangely quiet. Apart from the usual exited bark of the small family's playful baby German Shepherd, the whole farm was silent. Taylor raced into Charity's stall, but it was empty. Then, she ran into the house, where she found her mom. "Where is Charity mom?" Taylor asked, trying to sound calmer than she was. "And where is dad and Jack and the other stable hand?" "At the vet's with Charity" her mom said, "last I heard, her foal is due any day now." Taylor gasped. She didn't know weather to be happy because Charity was going to have a foal, or scared for her life. Charity was a delicate mare, and no one could say how she would come out, if she did. "_No_!" Taylor thought to herself, "_I must not think that._" The scared girl raced outside as fast as she could and in a flash, had saddled up Guardian, a retired racehorse. The pair galloped as fast as they could, to get to the veterinarian clinic. As soon as they got there, Taylor tied Guardian to a post and rushed inside. The receptionist at the front desk apparently thought that Taylor had all the time in the world to chat. After what seemed like a million questions, Taylor stormed off muttering "I'll find them myself." She ran up the stairs at the back of the room, only to find the animal storage room. She turned to go back down, and then and there…thank goodness! A map! Quickly, she read through it. "Ok. I have to go up one floor and… oh I don't know! Too bad that there isn't a room labeled: Charity's temporary stall. I'll find them when I get up there." Taylor spun around and ran up the stairs behind her. She found about a dozen doors on each side of the hallway. Witch one was Charity in? The nervous girl peeked into the first door on her left. It was empty. No! Wait! Someone was leading a horse in the back from a trailer like hers! Could it be? The boy was about the right size to be Nathan too! Taylor held her breath, and waited. All of a sudden, her heart sunk. It was not Nathan, nor Charity. It was a young chestnut colt, with a bandage on his left, front leg. She ran outside again, and wondered which door to try next. Taylor was getting impatient. She wanted so badly just to find, and comfort Charity. Suddenly, she saw Nathan come out of one of the rooms, and when he saw her, he gave her a sympathizing look. "Nathan! "How is Charity?" She cried, sounding panicked. Nathan just looked at his feet. "No…" Taylor knew what could have happened, but she couldn't believe that it had happened until she had seen her horse with her own eyes… or not her breath, she burst into the room where she knew- _hoped _Charity was in. Her father, Jack, the other stable hand, and two veterinarians were in it. She barely glanced at them. Taylor desperately scanned the room, looking for her horse. All she saw was a small black filly, struggling to her feet. Not that she cared. She _had_ to find Charity. Taylor went up to one of the veterinarians. His nametag read: Joseph Catsworth. "Mr. Catsworth? My horse. Charity. Where is she?" Taylor asked him. "I'm sorry." Replied the vet, giving her the same sympathizing as Nathan had. " Your horse cannot be with us anymore." Taylor stared at him in absolute horror. Her fears had been confirmed. She felt tears coming to her eyes. She did not really fancy everyone present seeing her cry, but she could not hold them back. In a daze, she walked over to her father, and buried her head in his arms. Suddenly, her sadness disappeared, only to be replaced by something stronger. Anger. Hate. But at what? The foal that's what. "It's your fault!" she screamed at the innocent looking foal. "Why did you have to show up?" Taylor glared at the filly for a moment, then stormed out. Before anyone could stop her, she ran down both flights of stairs, then ran out of the building, ignoring the calling receptionist, who probably wanted a chat. Well, she wasn't going to get one from _that_ girl. Taylor wanted more than ever to go and bury her head in Charity's mane and have a good long cry like she usually did when she was sad, but she couldn't. She did not want to think of the awful, useless, reason why. Guardian was obediently waiting for her right outside of the door. They slowly and quietly (apart from the usual *sniff* from Taylor) made their way back home. When they got there, glad of something to do to keep her mind off Charity, she gave Guardian a good long brushing down.

When her father's horse trailer pulled up in the driveway, she quickly started walking towards the house, trying to seem casual. He called out to her: "Taylor! Come help put the new foal in Charity's old stall!" Taylor did not want anything to do with that ignored him and kept walking. She decided that her pillow would have to do instead of her first choice -which was not available- Charity's mane. Taylor didn't even feel like eating. When her mother called her for diner, she just ignored the call. For the next week, Taylor did her chores like a robot. She ate as little as her parents would let her. She was down to the bottom of the class at school, but when her teacher asked her what was wrong, she just looked away. Taylor now spent most of her time and energy on the other three pregnant mares to ensure that they would not go the same way as Charity. Everyone at the farm had a vote –in which Taylor did not participate- to name the new filly. "Moon Dancer" outvoted every other name, so the foal was to be named Moon Dancer. For the next year, Taylor acted as if nothing had changed. As if Moon Dancer did not exist. Even when Moon Dancer –or Dance to most people at the farm- neighed to her every time she passed her stall. Even when Moon Dancer trotted up to her in the pasture when she was putting out the hay. (Taylor did not know if this was because Moon Dancer liked _her_ or just the hay.) EVEN when her father asked her to start dance's training! (Though that was hard.) She tried to get Nathan to do that most of the time anyway. She could tell that Dance was trying to make friends with her. Yeah well, she was not going to let _that_ happen. Not after what she had done to… For the zillionth time, Taylor's thoughts swayed back to Charity. She remembered the feeling of the wind in her hair as they had a nice fast steady canter along the trail in the forest. She remembered the beautiful stars that were visible at night when they came out to ride when Taylor could not sleep. She even remembered when Charity tried to help muck out her own stall getting more mud on her hooves. It was quite a funny sight actually. Taylor smiled as she remembered that. Not many people had seen a horse try to clean up, but most know that they do not succeed. Moon Dancer _never _did anything like that. Taylor missed Charity. Everyone around the farm kept telling her that there will always be another horse. They just didn't understand…Her mother never found another horse after her beloved Pegasus went back to Olympus, and yet she and her father had decided to come back to earth. Well, Taylor was NEVER going to forget Charity.


End file.
